Kertész, Imre. Fiasco

Fiasco is the second part in Holocaust survivor Imre Kertész’s trilogy revolving around the effect that the Holocaust has had on his life. The first book in the trilogy, Fatelessness (1975), centres on the experiences of a 14-year-old boy in Auschwitz and Buchenwald concentration camps. Initially, the publication of the book was met with a considerable amount of resistance. Fiasco narrates Kertész’s many failed attempts to have Fatelessness published. It is clear that the trilogy is highly autobiographical, yet the protagonist is never revealed as Kertész. Fiasco includes a passage in which the narrator meditates on representations of Ilse Koch, and more generally on the issues involved in relation to writing about female perpetrators.

Kertész, Imre. Fiasco. Melville House. New York, 2011.